Before we get started on this chapter, let me say, I myself am not into falconry, so don't expect me to be right on this, I'm doing best with the resources I've got and I'm trying to make a multi-dimensional character, falconry seemed like a good alternative to dragon training. If any real falconry people find this, I would gladly accept corrections (please be kind and understanding)
Also, to the reviews:
NatBlake: Thanks for the review, and I responded to you, but I'll say it here for everyone else, I do plan on Tuff being the extreme rocker of the group, all the teens of the movies will be in the band eventually (though not at first, as implied), and yes, as I said before, there will be Hiccstrid, and probably a more realistic rocker lifestyle, but nobody should worry about it, I'm not explicit and will, as stated in TiR, never write anything above T. It will be thought through and well done, trust me.
Dark Ghost coc: May I ask how I am being racist? The context of being rude here is completely uncalled for. (I'm being legitimate btw, I don't run from mean trolls, if you have somewhere, something positive to add, then you can PM me)
Sorry for that last reply, I'm not sure if he was being a troll or just being mean, or both (and I doubt he'll respond, or if he'll even see that, but I don't back down from mean people, I usually take it in stride)
Now really sorry for that, so here is the first chapter...
Chapter 1: The Beat
Hiccup had hated school, always had, it always felt slow and inadequate. It just never seemed to do much for him. However, he liked that it had a falconry club, of course it wasn't large, but he managed it well. There is where some of his life could be expressed, where he wasn't really an outcast, though being the leader set him apart. The crew consisted of mostly freshman interested in the idea of falconry, few actually getting the full idea. Falconry was only seen as cool from the outside, but it truly was hard work.
Hiccup worked with the club and Toothless for two hours after school, before he had to go home. He needed to take care of dinner and his dad wouldn't home until twelve. He decided to pack up his gear, bringing most of it home is his backpack, and leaving from his locker, he saw a few people down the hall, and he raised his eyebrows high realizing who it was, shifting his pack on his back, and ran down the stairs, taking the right, and out the door. He saw them follow suit, leaving the door soon after him, but as soon as the leader, obviously Snotlout, got out, Hiccup's eagle, Toothless, attacked him, leaving Hiccup enough time to get away, he knew his best friend could easily handle the group and get away, and so kept on running.
When he reached his home, he looked back to see his eagle return from his protection of his ally, feeling hugely thankful again to his fellow 'flock' member. As Toothless landed, he hopped over towards the front door where Hiccup was joyful to see his friend, not that he hadn't expected it, to which Hiccup got on one knee, and scratched his eagle on the top of his head. "Thanks bud, seriously, what would I do without you?" And then he rose back up, took out his key, unlocked the finicky door, letting Toothless in, re-locked the door, and sat on the couch, feeling as if Snotlout actually did beat him in his lungs, deciding on listening to music, usually finding television uninteresting.
He soon made dinner to the televised music, his father still out. Getting out a pan, a few spices, and some chicken breasts, he quickly prepared three breast for his plate and served it up for himself. When he finished his appetite, he gave the rest to Toothless, who quickly tore the small remains to nothing. "You were hungry today, didn't catch enough huh?" Hiccup chuckled a bit. "I think Snotlout is still open." To which the response was a caw. "Yeah...you'll probably get another chance." He said morbidly.
Hiccup decided it was now a good time to practice, get some guitar exercises in before it again became too late, see he launched upstairs with his pick in his pocket. He walked in his room, setup his amp and cords, plugged his guitar and distortion pedal in, check the tune, and went to work. He spent two hours of exercise before he wanted to try his hand at practicing some progressions, riffs, and songs, the first of which was an easier one from Black Sabbath's Iron Man, more as his last warmup then anything, and spent twenty minutes moving between the frets, before trying out more of the song.
He then went into Metallica's King Nothing riff. He found it fun, but empty, and decided to put in his earbuds and turned the specific song on his MP3 on, now trying to follow the entire song on his guitar, and following well. He moved his fingers fast through the motions, and with Toothless now sitting in the window, he had paused the MP3 and tried to do the riffs as fast as possible, finding it strange how he was moving much faster than song, and it was oddly thicker when he did it. He found it strangely satisfying.
He then turned to sampling Nirvana's Smells Teen Spirit but couldn't stop playing and ended up following that whole song too. He kept on a streak of finding songs he just couldn't stop playing and went on right to ten thirty at night, spending almost a quarter of the day on the guitar. Feeling satisfied, and preferring not to anger the neighbors, he turned off and unplugged everything, and got dressed for sleep. Moving to the bathroom to brush up before making sure the house was secured enough for when his dad got home, closing all the windows and locking all doors. He then proceeded upstairs, into his room, seeing his best friend in his usual perch to sleep, and covered himself for sleep.
Hiccup however woke in the middle of the night, now unable to get back to sleep. He felt tired, but just couldn't get back to sleep, and deciding it was somehow nerves, took a few minutes walking about the house to calm them. When he finished and felt that he failed, he decided maybe if he took a glass of milk and reflected on the day that he could get over it, it worked before, he thought.
He reflected that night on his plans, what he wanted to do, always finding music somewhere near the top when he tried revising. He kept it up until he started to drift off on the couch at four ten, and after a two hours napping on the couch, woke with a start from his best friend waking him at six thirty. "Ah...oh, hey Toothless, how did I...oh yeah." Slightly stuttering as he was waking up to remembering last night. Then he looked over at the clock on the cable box "Oh crap, I only have enough time for cereal," He quickly rushed. "Stupid comfortable couch." As he ran up to the cabinets, getting out a bowl and spoon, and pouring a cup of dry cereal, not bothering with getting milk. He devoured the whole thing promptly and rushed up the household stairs to the bathroom, after scooping up his clothes.
He fit his shirt and pants on, and came to brushing up his teeth and hair, washing and flossing afterwards, rushed out the door, only barely remembering his keys and pack, and locked the door as he left. He flew down the street, knowing it to be seven twenty, and didn't want to be caught crowded around people, knowing full well one specific person was waiting for that. He reached the building a little too late for the crowd however, and just quickly made his way to homeroom, trying to avoid being seen by anyone. When he reached it, he had very few people he really knew in the room, though he never made many friends anyway, so he just waited for the bell to ring so he could rush to math, completely avoiding his locker knowing Snotlout would start the chase as soon as he was pinned.
He reached his pre-calc class in record time, before anyone but the teacher was in, and just sat inside waiting to talk to Felix. As the room filled up, he eventually saw Felix and turned his unconscious frown into a very light smile, knowing that period is going to be bad at the least.
"Did you get your homework done?" Felix asked, as he took out a binded book and slapped in on the his desk.
"I finished most of it, but then I started writing lyrics, and just didn't bother" He told his friend as he too slapped his unfinished work on the desk to be checked by the teacher "Hopefully he doesn't notice" he whispered as the moment came up behind, looking at both of their work. "Good job Felix, same for you Hiccup, but next time complete the whole thing." Mr. Wilson told him.
"Yeah, I'll get to it next time." He said unphased, he truly didn't care about school, and waved mostly of the problems away, always passing the tests anyhow. He prefered to get out so he could get a chance at something outside the school, though he wasn't sure what.
"Oh yeah Hiccup, by the way, I um...I've been drumming for a good while but it's been awhile since I practiced someone, so I was thinking if you'd like to come by and start practicing together?" Felix asked timidly, nearly reaching a stuttering level of shyness in his voice.
"Why ask me? And what happened to the drumline?" Hiccup was curious, his friend had been in the drumline for two years and was probably one of the best at the school, to which Hiccup could even attest to.
"My dad took me out of it to focus on school, he thought it cut into my time in class, but he won't care if I'm practicing outside the school, oh and I've been practicing on a kit for a while." Felix admitted, knowing that Hiccup would play best alongside a drum kit.
"Why would he do that now though? It's the middle of the year." Hiccup wondered.
"He thought my grades drop last month, in English, remember that project?" Felix asked a little unhappy at the drop of his drumming for a grade that wasn't his fault.
"That was really dumb, but he got you out of drumline for that?" Hiccup now stared at his friend for having a peculiar, overburdening parent. The fact the school allows early grading to ease the teachers makes those parent even worse to deal with.
"Yeah it was dumb, but now I'm out and I can't get back in, he's scared I'm gonna fall back again, and he won't listen, but it's not like he's ever home anyway, so I still have free time, and I still want to practice." He was starting to rush his speech a tiny bit, even while whispering. Hiccup however would of liked a partner to work with on music, especially a percussionist.
"Alright, can I come over at four, I don't have falconry today, but I still need to feed Toothless, is that a good time" He asked, now getting anxious to come over his friend's house, finally planning to spend time working on music. Not a band of course, he though, but still fun. That's when the teacher glared at them for whispering. "You have anything important to say Henry?" He asked.
"Could you ever please just call me Hiccup?"
After Hiccup had gone home, he feed Toothless and threw his pack in the closet, originally debating on bring him, but decided against it seeing as his friend might not be happy with that. After that, he packed up his gear, guitar, cords, distortion pedal , checking his pocket for his pick, then picked up his notebook and a pencil and packed them up in the guitar case. He then made his way on after telling Toothless a simple he'll be gone for a few hours,again warning him not to piss off the neighbors.
The trek to Felix's house was about half an hour, opposite side of school oddly enough, not being at his house in years. He really missed being good old friends, but middle and high school have a way of splitting you up a lot, he thought. He reach his friend's door without an amp, he was told his father played guitar as a hobby before his wife left him, and still had most of the gear in the attic.
"Hey Hiccup" He opened the door swiftly after the knock. "I got the everything set up in the basement, and my dad's not gonna be home for a few hours, so we can get a good amount practice." As he let Hiccup, and proceeded to walk down to the basement, to which Hiccup entered in awe of how strangely clean yet filled the place was. The organization of this part of the house was extreme. "Felix, are you OCD or something? This is ridiculously organized." He dryly stated, though still slightly in awe.
"Dad keeps a tight house, I learned early on I on to keep messes away, and he seemed to always do mostly the same." Hiccup had never known how strict Felix's dad was, nor had he ever really been much more than through the front door of his house, so he was impressed at the over organized, slightly hoarded materials all over, magazines, newspapers, notes and books, lots of papers, even a few comics, he even found a sword. "Don't even ask me why he keeps it, it was apparently a jokingly expensive from my mom" Felix had said casually as he picked it up. "It's a pretty sweet etched steel sword, no wonder he kept it." Hiccup had blurted, finding a bit of interest in metalwork, the idea that you could influence metal to respond to a shape you want it in, maybe if he ever gets a chance, in his free time his mind told him.
"Alright, uh, should we get started, where's the amp" Hiccup then asked, putting down the Roadrunner case. He unzipped it and took out the the guitar, the distortion pedal and cords and plugged them up, resting his guitar on a wall, setting his notes on a nearby chair.
"Over there, get plugged up, it's a bit finicky last I remember, but it's still good" He pointed to an apparent hidden corner of the room. He turned it on, plugged the cords from the pedal into it, then put the other cord on the pedal into his guitar, tuned it up slightly, and set up the pedal and guitar for last second adjustments.
"Alright, up and ready, want start a beat?"
Hey readers, so this is crazy, but even at my worst speed, I write this pretty fast, I don't get it, maybe I'm just super into this for now, either way, I had fun with this. Oh and just so you guys know, this is not the band yet, this is just the beginning. Also, apparently I'm starting up beta reading for Captain Hiccup by NatBlake, it's pretty good, I haven't read the most recent chapters yet, but you should check it out if you like Norse gods, and what appears to be struggling Hiccstrid, trust me, it's pretty good. (The character arcs, for Hiccup especially, started after the first three or four chapter, are amazingly written, they get better, even with the pain Hiccup goes through, his character becomes way more dynamic)
Anyway, I hope you liked this, as I put alot into this, though I'll be honest I'm nervous cause I feel like I started this a tiny bit pour to which I'm sorry. But either way, thanks immensely for reading, I really mean it.
Anyway, if you really liked this, you should fav and/or follow, and whether you liked or hate, please review (though if you have issues with me, please be kind and tell me, I want to improve, don't be mean like Ghost was and call me things like racist out of nowhere...without explanation at least...please...sorry if I'm being rude or anything, it's just Ghost may not have discouraged me to this, but he had gotten under my skin a little)
By the way, I couldn't think of a better name, everything me and a few of my friends came up with was not really good, so I've decided to stick with using Toothless.
Oh, and if you really liked this, you might like my other works, or maybe not, that would be for you to decide...ok, I'm done, and sorry for not being more joking in this AN, Ghost really bugged me, and I felt maybe I should be a little more serious in this one, I'll be more laxed next time, ok? Okay. Oh and one more time, thank you for reading, seriously, I maybe saying it too much, but I mean it.
